I was disappointed by the court ruling on Michaela community school’s prayer ban (High court upholds top London school’s ban on prayer rituals, 16 April), and shocked to see the jubilant reaction from several prominent politicians. Children praying in school is not disruptive or threatening, and for Kemi Badenoch to suggest that these pupils are attempting to “impose their views on an entire school community” screams of xenophobia. With this ruling, it’s the other way around. The prayer ban tells Muslim children that their religious and cultural practices are foreign and undesirable, and in doing so forces conformity to a homogeneous British identity.
I attended a Catholic school in Glasgow with a large number of Muslim students. Many wore hijabs and observed Ramadan, and every Friday a lot of my friends would go to a nearby mosque for midday prayers. In a school system where religious education was taught out of a textbook by old white men, having the opportunity to learn about other cultures through discussions with my peers and exposure to their lifestyles and practices was an enriching experience. Surely this environment of diversity, acceptance and understanding is one that our educators and politicians wish to cultivate?
Oliver Eastwood
Glasgow
• Your article about the Michaela case mentions “renewed discussion about whether faith and religion should have any role in the education system”. The primary school options for my granddaughter this year were three faith schools within walking distance or alternative non-faith schools too distant to walk to. If the faith schools had been oversubscribed, they could have rejected her on the basis of her (non-)religion. Only 6% of our population are practising Christians and this figure will be boosted by those desperate for a particular school place, but over a third of primary schools are (Christian) faith schools. As these schools are almost entirely tax-funded, this is absurd.
Bill Bradbury
Bolton
• Re Nadeine Asbali’s article (Michaela school will keep its prayer ban – but as a Muslim teacher I know it doesn’t have to be this way, 16 April), it’s crucial to distinguish between freedom of belief and the outward practice of those beliefs in an explicitly secular institution.
First, freedom of religion doesn’t equate to unlimited practice. Students can maintain their faith internally, contemplating and praying silently through the day. The school doesn’t restrict core beliefs, only the outward practice. Second, positive experiences with prayer in schools may not be universal. Prayer rituals can create social pressure or division. Third, and most importantly, the accusation of Islamophobia is serious, but unsubstantiated here. The school’s policy applies to all religions. Focusing on prayer rituals doesn’t equate to broader societal prejudice.
Mo Shahdloo
Oxford
• The headteacher of Michaela has defined a strategy centred on the removal of all religious affiliations and the school has announced itself as secular. It ensures that everyone who enrols is aware of this before they sign up. The school is focused on results and views this policy as a fundamental part of this. Its educational performance has been rated outstanding and could be viewed as best practice. Even if that is not the case, by giving parents the choice whether this type of education is appropriate for them or not, it is adding to diversity of choice.
It seems that Nadeine Asbali is missing the point and calls for conformity to type rather than diversity of thought. She possibly believes that teachers’ legal requirement to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students can only be achieved though a religious forum. I think not. It can be achieved without religion, as shown by the school’s achievements. Also, to allow a student to sign up to an agreement, only to challenge it later to the point of dissent, would break the code of conduct referenced in Nadeine’s article.
Andrew Jenkins
Neath
• I support Nadeine Asbali in her views concerning the ban on Muslim prayers in Michaela school. I am a committed and practising Christian, and I am greatly concerned at the increasing secularisation pervading our society. We are all naturally spiritual beings with a hunger for something other than materialism, and to ban any expression of this is to deny what it is to be human. I believe it is policing religious freedom, and is curbing expression of deeply held beliefs that, as Nadeine says, handled correctly, can actually improve an understanding of each other.
Children need to learn how to share ideas and convictions respectfully and with tolerance. How else will they learn to evaluate truth and form their own opinions? If not interrupting the normal learning routine, Muslim prayer times should not be banned. At the same time, the same freedom should be afforded to other religious expressions, such as discussion groups and Christian prayer times.
Hazel Butler
Eastbourne, East Sussex
• I felt relieved reading Nadeine Asbali’s article on the prayer ban case. When I was a teenager in a mostly white state secondary school, I asked my religious studies teacher if I could pray at the back of her classroom for five minutes at lunch. Though not Muslim, she understood me completely. Sometimes we’d have a brief chat, sometimes she would give me a reassuring nod as she ate her lunch in the office with humanities staff next door while I went in for my five minutes of devotion and peace over the years.
The headteacher probably had no idea, and I can’t see why it matters. It seems that schools promoting independence, diversity and respect are behind us. Now, every moment of a young person’s day is dictated by a new, oddly dogmatic secularism. And people are feeling proud to see the cookie-cutter academic results this churns out. It is nauseating to read everywhere that this is a victory for British schools, and refreshing to see at least one article point out the contradiction in a ban on freedom being in line with liberal values.
Sabiha Ahmed
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
• Nadeine Asbali refers to “young people learning how to get along with people different from themselves”. That is a sentiment I’m sure most of us would fully support. She also takes the view that “an obstinate, French-style secularism is creeping into our classrooms”. Rather than “creeping”, secularism should be actively encouraged in the education system if we are to avoid segregation of communities along religious, racial and economic lines. We learn to accept and get along with others by spending time with people who come from a background different to our own. Faith schools can discriminate against pupils and teachers who do not share the religion of the school. This at odds with to the objective of a cohesive society.
The old adage “Schools are for teaching, not preaching” is more relevant today than at any time in our history.
Tony Hicks
Nottingham
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